Michelle Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with a speech that sliced Trump and his mean-spirited vision of America into ribbons. Without so much as mentioning his name, she made him look small and praised Clinton as gritty champion of progress. Her address sent the delegates and assembled pundits into rapture.
“In this election, we cannot sit back and hope that everything works out for the best. We cannot afford to be tired or frustrated or cynical,” she said of a battle against a Republican candidate unlike any in memory. “We need to knock on every door, we need to get out every vote. We need to pour every last ounce of passion into electing Hillary Clinton.”
When Michelle speaks, Democrats and not a few Republicans listen. Even the Twitter-happy Trump dared not challenge the first lady, one of the most popular women in the country. From her straight-from-the-heart oratory to her dynamic fashion choices and the pop culture videos that invariably go viral, she commands unprecedented attention.
Michelle, more than Barack, has an instinct for what people are thinking and feeling. She also tends to be more direct and she hates to lose. Many a campaign worker can recall Michelle leaning toward a wavering Democrat in the early days of that 2008 race, demanding to know what it would take to put him in Barack’s column. The staff started calling her “The Closer.”
In the White House, too, Michelle is known for her strong views. “She tells the president exactly what she thinks. She doesn’t hold back. She is completely honest,” says presidential advisor and friend Valerie Jarrett. Another Chicago friend, Marty Nesbitt, describes Michelle as the most “do what’s right” person in Barack’s circle.
A key to Michelle’s popularity is a sense of authenticity. She talks openly about the scorn she faced as a teenager when she set her sights on attending elite Princeton University. She reveals her vulnerabilities, including moments when she worried she was hurting Barack’s electoral chances and, in the White House, when she feared disappointing the voters who had sent them there.
Michelle trained at Princeton and Harvard Law School and before her husband’s election, had spent 20 years building a successful career largely independent of him. When they entered the White House, determined to make a difference in her unelected, unpaid and not exactly self-chosen new role, she turned to issues that had long animated her, notably the intersection of children, health, education and the nation’s persistent inequality.
Harvesting vegetables with schoolchildren in the White House garden in 2009
Harvesting vegetables with schoolchildren in the White House garden in 2009 Credit: Getty
She focused first on childhood obesity and nutrition. More than one-third of American children are deemed overweight or obese; a disproportionate percentage are African American or Hispanic. Later, she pushed young people, especially children of color and more especially girls, to fight for the education that she credits for launching her out of Chicago’s working class, where her father was a shift worker in the city water plant. No first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt has paid so much attention to issues of race, class and inequality.
"She will write a book, no doubt pocketing millions. Most of all, she will be looking forward to time outside the spotlight, to travel, spend time with family, drive in a car with the windows down"
Yet what sets Michelle apart are the creative ways she targets her message to the audiences she most wants to reach. She has mastered social media, posting humorous videos, as well as more serious tweets, Instagram photos and, most recently, Snapchat posts. It has become routine for her to make cameo appearances on television, from Sesame Street to police drama NCIS to doing push-ups with talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.
While Michelle’s favourability percentage consistently reaches into the 60s - higher than her husband’s, in a deeply polarized nation, Republican critics mock her body, belittle her chosen history lessons and dismiss her nutrition admonitions as the hallmarks of a nanny state. After nearly 10 years in the public eye, she has heard it all. She told the convention last week, “Our motto is: ‘When they go low, we go high'."
What will she do next? With her eldest daughter Malia taking a gap year before starting at Harvard, Michelle’s options now appear limitless, but she has told friends that she has made no firm decisions. Before Barack’s election she was a hospital executive at the University of Chicago, and had focused on improving healthcare for disadvantaged African Americans on Chicago’s South Side: the Obamas will be building a presidential library and community centre there. The family are reportedly planning to stay in the Washington area, renting a nine-bedroom mansion in the Kalorama neighbourhood, while Sasha finishes high school.
“In this election, we cannot sit back and hope that everything works out for the best. We cannot afford to be tired or frustrated or cynical,” she said of a battle against a Republican candidate unlike any in memory. “We need to knock on every door, we need to get out every vote. We need to pour every last ounce of passion into electing Hillary Clinton.”
When Michelle speaks, Democrats and not a few Republicans listen. Even the Twitter-happy Trump dared not challenge the first lady, one of the most popular women in the country. From her straight-from-the-heart oratory to her dynamic fashion choices and the pop culture videos that invariably go viral, she commands unprecedented attention.
Michelle, more than Barack, has an instinct for what people are thinking and feeling. She also tends to be more direct and she hates to lose. Many a campaign worker can recall Michelle leaning toward a wavering Democrat in the early days of that 2008 race, demanding to know what it would take to put him in Barack’s column. The staff started calling her “The Closer.”
In the White House, too, Michelle is known for her strong views. “She tells the president exactly what she thinks. She doesn’t hold back. She is completely honest,” says presidential advisor and friend Valerie Jarrett. Another Chicago friend, Marty Nesbitt, describes Michelle as the most “do what’s right” person in Barack’s circle.
A key to Michelle’s popularity is a sense of authenticity. She talks openly about the scorn she faced as a teenager when she set her sights on attending elite Princeton University. She reveals her vulnerabilities, including moments when she worried she was hurting Barack’s electoral chances and, in the White House, when she feared disappointing the voters who had sent them there.
Michelle trained at Princeton and Harvard Law School and before her husband’s election, had spent 20 years building a successful career largely independent of him. When they entered the White House, determined to make a difference in her unelected, unpaid and not exactly self-chosen new role, she turned to issues that had long animated her, notably the intersection of children, health, education and the nation’s persistent inequality.
Harvesting vegetables with schoolchildren in the White House garden in 2009
Harvesting vegetables with schoolchildren in the White House garden in 2009 Credit: Getty
She focused first on childhood obesity and nutrition. More than one-third of American children are deemed overweight or obese; a disproportionate percentage are African American or Hispanic. Later, she pushed young people, especially children of color and more especially girls, to fight for the education that she credits for launching her out of Chicago’s working class, where her father was a shift worker in the city water plant. No first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt has paid so much attention to issues of race, class and inequality.
"She will write a book, no doubt pocketing millions. Most of all, she will be looking forward to time outside the spotlight, to travel, spend time with family, drive in a car with the windows down"
Yet what sets Michelle apart are the creative ways she targets her message to the audiences she most wants to reach. She has mastered social media, posting humorous videos, as well as more serious tweets, Instagram photos and, most recently, Snapchat posts. It has become routine for her to make cameo appearances on television, from Sesame Street to police drama NCIS to doing push-ups with talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.
While Michelle’s favourability percentage consistently reaches into the 60s - higher than her husband’s, in a deeply polarized nation, Republican critics mock her body, belittle her chosen history lessons and dismiss her nutrition admonitions as the hallmarks of a nanny state. After nearly 10 years in the public eye, she has heard it all. She told the convention last week, “Our motto is: ‘When they go low, we go high'."
What will she do next? With her eldest daughter Malia taking a gap year before starting at Harvard, Michelle’s options now appear limitless, but she has told friends that she has made no firm decisions. Before Barack’s election she was a hospital executive at the University of Chicago, and had focused on improving healthcare for disadvantaged African Americans on Chicago’s South Side: the Obamas will be building a presidential library and community centre there. The family are reportedly planning to stay in the Washington area, renting a nine-bedroom mansion in the Kalorama neighbourhood, while Sasha finishes high school.
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